The Jets’ 40-year search to fill Joe Namath’s white shoes

11:59 AM ET

Forty years ago, Joe Namath played his final game with the New York Jets. He was benched after throwing four interceptions and posting a 0.0 passer rating, yet fans chanted, “We want Joe!” in the waning minutes of a 42-3 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. They wanted one last glimpse before closing an era. Maybe they knew it never would be the same.

The Jets went from Namath to Richard Todd to Ken O’Brien to Browning Nagle to Boomer Esiason to Neil O’Donnell to Vinny Testaverde to Chad Pennington to Brett Favre to Mark Sanchez to Geno Smith to Ryan Fitzpatrick to … who the heck knows?

There have been pockets of success over the decades, but many of the aforementioned quarterbacks were too old, too injury-prone or habitual interception throwers to provide lasting impact. The Jets have no Super Bowl championships and only two division titles in the post-Namath era, still searching for that elusive franchise quarterback. Still waiting for that second cup of Joe.

Is this the year they find him? Will Paxton Lynch become the new golden boy? If they anoint him, will someone they deemed a lesser prospect become the next Dan Marino, recreating the O’Brien-Marino oopsie from 1983?

On Thursday night, the temptation will be great to pick a quarterback at 20. Advice to the Jets: Resist the urge.

Lynch is intriguing because he looks the part, 6-foot-6 with an arm like Noah Syndergaard, but there are enough questions about his mental makeup that make you wonder if he could succeed in the crucible of the New York market. He reportedly scored an 18 on his Wonderlic intelligence test, below average for a quarterback. It goes deeper than that, though. Some teams have concerns about his maturity and ability to handle the cerebral nature of the …

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